


Manjusaka

by cassyeopeia



Category: ATEEZ (Band)
Genre: Afterlife, Based on a legend, Chinese Mythology - Freeform, Drabble, Hell, I wrote this because I felt like posting something, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-15
Updated: 2020-03-15
Packaged: 2021-03-01 01:48:00
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23157322
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cassyeopeia/pseuds/cassyeopeia
Summary: "The spider lily can never bear both flowers and leaves. When it blooms, the leaves fall, and when they grow, the flower withers."
Relationships: Jeong Yunho/Song Mingi
Kudos: 24





	Manjusaka

The spider lily can never bear both flowers and leaves. When it blooms, the leaves fall, and when they grow, the flower withers. Mingi guarded the leaves, and Yunho guarded the flower, but the one who ruled over the heavens destined them not to know of each other. During the autumnal equinox, Mingi looked up from the leaves to the bud yet to bloom and saw a bead flaming so red that he mistook for the eye of a god. But the spider lily bloomed right under Yunho’s watch, and Mingi forgot to look away, until the gods put him to sleep. The next equinox came, and Mingi left his post again to make a promise to Yunho, one that he will meet him by the river of Diyu once the lily dies.

Yunho watched the stranded boats on the other side of the River of the Three Crossings. The lily in his hair comb cried red with each step he took along the flame-work floodplain. He watched the stone pilings built by children and destroyed by the ogres, only to be rebuilt again. He watched the good crossing the bridge of gold and silver, and those who sinned being tossed in the river for them to be eaten by the serpents, only to come back to life again. This was only one of the one hundred and thirty four worlds of hell, and maybe not even the surface of the Eighteen Levels. 

Yunho found himself by the stream of the river, with the gate to the first court to hell to his left, and the path to the second realm of transmigration to his right. But he had a promise to keep, so he took the path ahead of him.

He picked the crimson lilies growing by the riverbed. “Pick them up and they’ll lead to the other half of the promise,” A creature with the body of a crow and the head of a dog said. Yunho didn’t listen, and didn’t pick up all the flowers. Instead, he gathered three lilies in full bloom, and six leaves to wrap around the stems. The first lily was to poison the snakes from the bottom of the river so he could cross it safely. The second lily was to bribe the demon sitting by the gate, waiting to weigh the sins by the tree branches. The third lily was an offering to the one who ruled the underworld, or maybe just a form of persuasion to get him to tell him what was he meant to do. However, once he placed the flower by the pillars, the susurrus of the river stopped, and the flowers caught fire. Yunho sighed, waiting for the fire rain to start, one that burned his robes and skin and hair, and one that would follow him even at the bottom of the river.

That was when he understood his Sisyphean task of stepping where the lilies didn’t bloom, be it by the river, within the Chamber of Avichi, or on the Mountain of Knives. He was granted immortality within what the Lord called the realm of the dead, so as long as he found the leaves to the flower in his hair comb, and welcomed the newly dead with spider blossoms. That was when his voice found despair. A form of agony that corroded diamond, or turned molten into ice.  
The red river changed its course up to its spring, until the level of the water lowered so much that it could be crossed on foot. The snake that haunted the bottom died breathless, and impaled through its mouth.

On the other shore stood a tall figure with bloody cheeks, robes as clear as glass, and a spider lily in full bloom hooked by his ear. In his hand, he held the leaves to the flowers from Yunho’s hair comb. They smiled, and crossed the river halfway to each other. Yunho kissed the sweet blood on Mingi’s cheeks.

There, Yunho remembered that there is perpetual equinox in hell, and that the spider lily can always bear both flowers and leaves.

**Author's Note:**

> Hi I miss Yungi.
> 
> Yell at me [here](https://twitter.com/cassyeopeia)


End file.
